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[journeysofpatrickandarchana]

Original blog posted on 7th March 2013

Accommodation on Hestia - Saturday 7th March 2013

"What doesn't break you, makes you stronger!" Friedrich Nietzsche

We have spent 9 nights on Hestia so far and no sign of any motion sickness! The picture is self explanatory. The boat is currently hauled out and we are living on it along with 4 other crew members! Only one person had a hotel booking and has chosen to stay in a hotel room.... Lucky him! Due to the Heineken regatta on last week in St Maarten, the hotel rooms were booked for months so this was our only option initially.



Fortunately Shyam and Shalaka, who stayed with us for one night on Hestia and our crew have looked at this situation as an experience rather than a hurdle. The only part I do not enjoy about living on the top of the world is that we are not allowed to use the toilets on board and have to climb down a rickety ladder to use a public toilet on the yard. At the back of the toilet cubicle is a shower cubicle without a door (just a partitioning wall for privacy).......and it costs €1 for 5 minutes of running water to have a quick shower. It is hard to find these €1 coins as you need them for the daily shower and also for the weekly laundry. So the option of the couple shower was enticing and romantic! Imagine we both manage a shower together in 5 minutes.

I can see my friend Roisin having a hoot at the sound of this, on numerous occasions she has had to break the bathroom door to pull me out of my relaxing 20 minutes shower while we shared a terrace in Sydney and that too on a good day, on a hair wash day it would have been a lot longer! Miss you Roisin. X

So this is how it all came to be. Upon arriving in St Maarten, we had no accommodation and there was nothing available, so we ended up camping at Lindsay's for 2 nights in a little spare studio he had. Another first for me, this house had 8 dogs. Friends who know me will find this astounding. If I had a choice, I would have booked a hotel room at $1000 a night rather than stay in a house with 8 dogs and doggy poop all over the front yard.

After much hue and cry by Patrick, the vendor, provided us with an alternate boat to stay on for the next couple days. This was a Benetau Oceanis 54 called Selene. We picked Shyam and Shalaka in the afternoon and drove to Anse Marcel. In the excitement of being with them, our first time driving on the wrong side of the road in this country and the time of the day, we took a couple of wrong turns and after 35 minutes of driving we were almost back to where we started! We did make it to Anse Marcel late in the evening and had an average meal at expensive prices in an Italian Restaurant with a snooty French Maitre D'. None of this mattered with the joy of catching up with Shyam and Shalaka and finally introducing them to 'my' Patrick.

The next day we drove to Philipsburg with S & S, for a day of being tourists stopping on the top of a hill with fabulous views where we had tender coconuts. Another reminder of home. Once at Philipsburg we did the most touristy thing by walking into the Guavaberry Liquor shop and testing the free Guavaberry rum & liqueur. We loved it and bought couple of bottles for the trip. More bottles of alcohol were bought in the duty free shop at amazing prices followed by a walk on the beachside admiring all the colourful buildings and expensive jewellery shops by Indian jewellers. A stop for some creole cuisine and ice-cream completed the day.

Saturday was spent exploring Marigot markets and lunch by the sea side. I bought a lot of spices at the markets, this was followed by a home cooked meal of daal, rice & eggplant subzi. The evening was relaxing with lots of wine for all and Shalaka had her share of Rum & coke!

On Sunday 24th, Phil & Sybille arrived. The accommodation situation in St Maarten had still not improved not even a sofa available on their couch surfing website, the town was booked out. As a result, Phil and Sybille ended up hiring a car that they planned to sleep in! We sneaked them on another boat - Beneteau 40.5 Lady Marilyn managed by VPM. My memory of this night is trying to fill the water tank at 2am when the boat ran dry. Almost full moon and the madness to compliment it.

The pressure was on Patrick, the stress caused lots of friction, anxiety and more sleepless nights but finally on Monday afternoon we caved in and so did the vendor and there was a breakthrough towards closing the sale. In retrospect, we still got the raw deal. The vendor located on St Maarten, has no local market and is used to selling their badly maintained boats to unsuspecting overseas buyers. They are "in bed" with most surveyors available on the island. A foreign buyer arriving here ready to take over the boat is already at a disadvantage. I will write more about this on a separate blog as I think theses leeches need to be exposed. The broker was American and although he tried to assist in the end he was on a "holiday" over the most crucial week of the deal.

So finally the boat was moved to Polypat boat yard (near Marigot) on Tuesday morning and hauled out for the last bits of repair work by the vendor to rectify some problems as agreed and we could also then follow up with the much needed work to make the boat seaworthy by our standards. Unfortunately while repairing the sail drive the unqualified workers provided by the vendor ruined a major part of the sail drive which then delayed the boat getting back on the water further than the initial 48 hours as originally planned. We had to source this part around the world, to be finally found in Belgium. Finally the part was meant to be here yesterday Wednesday 6th March and the boat on the water today. In the interim we have been living on a hauled out boat in a boat yard and using the public facilities being woken up by the neighbouring rooster at 3am each morning.

To add some more to the adventure Patrick had a visit to the dentist due to excruciating pain caused by inflammation. After several calls over Skype to the insurance company and the worry of having to tentatively re-fill his tooth or even worse re-cap, this was a pleasant surprise. The dentist came highly recommended on the internet and managed to squeeze us in without an appointment. After a thorough check the dentist deemed this just an inflammation and was to be cured by a course of antibiotics.

Evenings were still fun with the crew sharing meals over a few glasses of wine or beer. It is a great opportunity to get to know each other and prepare ourselves for the big trip.

P.S: The part of the sail drive did not arrive yesterday as the order never left the office here in St Maarten. So we have now another 6 nights on the land before we have a test sail and then head off into the sunset.

[marvinjsm]

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[bksuryam]

A #healthyheart comes with a #CalmMind In #GodsRemembrance there is #peaceofmind & #ContentmentOfHeart This is because when we realize that we are being #LovedByGod We feel #HeartFull & Get #QuietMind Life is like a Swing & if its Chains are connected with God, the Joy of Swinging becomes Fearless!! For God's Sweetest Children, EveryDay is A Father's Day!! I will #ConnectGod , My #SoulParent in #RajaYoga #Meditation , Inherit All the #GodlyPowers to Rewrite #MyDestiny . #LifeIsThatSimple .!! #RajaYogaMeditation Makes You #LiveLifeKingSize .!! #Forever♾️ #ForAllLives .!! #RajaYoga #Meditation 🧘‍♂️ Empowers #DivineSelf to #Heal #BodyMindSoul 😇 💞 Visit us Today To Learn Meditation for Free 🆓 www.BrahmaKumaris.Com/centers 9414151111 ವಾಟ್ಸಪ್ ಮಾಡಿ www.wa.me/+917090044555 www.LearnMeditationOnline.Org 🆓 🧘‍♂️ AwakeningTv.in Peace of Mind Channel PmTV.in 🕉 Santhi 💞 🙏 #BrahmaKumarisWorldSpiritualUniversity 🕉Santhi💞🙏 #HealthyWealthyHappyForever https://www.instagram.com/p/CjZwnMahJaB/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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